Seventy five percent of natural latex rubber gloves used in laboratories at the Savannah River Site are not reused. A cost analysis performed by the SRS Procurement Department determined that a net savings of $1,092,210 could be achieved annually by recycling latex rubber gloves. The Materials Technology Section, at the request of the Procurement Department, examined some mechanical and chemical properties of latex rubber gloves manufactured by Ansell Edmont, which had been purchased by the site specifications for protective clothing. It also examined mechanical properties of re-cycled gloves purchased by specifications and of {open_quotes}off the shelf{close_quotes} gloves manufactured by North Brothers Company. Finally, water vapor transmission studies, simulating tritium permeation, were performed on gloves from both manufacturers. These studies were performed to determine whether latex rubber gloves can be recycled or whether using only new, unwashed gloves is required in areas where tritium exposure is a possibility. The results of these studies indicate that the acceptable glove characteristics, required in the WSRC Manual 5Q1.11, Protective Clothing Specifications, are not adversely affected after washing and drying the gloves manufactured by Ansell Edmont for seven cycles. Results also indicate that natural latex rubber gloves manufactured by North Brothers comply with most of …

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has developed a mobile field laboratory for remote measurement of atmospheric processes and observables that are important in global climate change, dispersal of hazardous materials, and atmospheric pollution. Specific observables of interest are water vapor, trace gases, aerosol size and density, wind, and temperature. The goal is to study atmospheric processes continuously for extended periods in remote field locations. This laboratory has just reached field ready status with sensors for aerosol and trace gas measurement based on established techniques. A development program is underway to enhance the sensor suite with several new techniques and instruments that are expected to significantly extend the state of the art in remote trace gas analysis. The new sensors will be incorporated into the lab during the next two years.

The authors have measured the ion yields for helium and neon ionized by 120 femtosecond, 614 nanometer laser pulses with intensities up to 10{sup 16} watts per square centimeter. They have found that the He II and Ne II data exhibit features incompatible with standard nonresonant sequential ionization. These features reduce the usefulness of optical field ionization for monitoring laser intensity. For the experiment, they expect dynamic resonances to have little effect on the ionization, and they attribute the features to nonsequential ionization based on the simultaneous saturation of the features and the singly ionized charge states.

Multi-layer laminate metal composites (LMCs) containing equal volume percent of Al 5182 and Al 6090--25 Vol.% SiC{sub p} were made. The laminates were prepared by hot pressing alternate layers to a fourth of initial height at 450C in argon gas atmosphere. Some laminates were warm rolled by repeatedly heating to 450C and rolling. The large plastic deformation ensured good bonding between layers. Tensile properties, fracture toughness, and damping capacity of these deformation-bonded laminates were measured. Surface descaling prior to lamination enhanced the tensile properties and toughness substantially. Post-lamination T6 heat treatment increased tensile yield and flow stress and reduced the ductility. Interfaces and dissimilar properties of the component materials enhanced the damping capacity. Yield and tensile strengths were slightly lower than values calculated from rule-of-averages based on the component materials. Toughness and damping capacity were, on the other hand, far superior to those of component materials. Ductility of the laminates was increased as the layer thickness was reduced.

The technique of laser-induced ablation of thin films from glass slide substrates has been investigated as a candidate vapor target production method for studies of both tunneling-driven x-ray/xuv recombination lasers and relativistic propagation using intense, ultra-short laser pulses. It is shown by simultaneous two-wavelength interferometry that particle densities of order 10{sup 19}/cm{sup 3} are readily achieved and that some intrinsic ionization accompanies the plume formation. Absorption measurements with both 100 picosecond and 125 femtosecond pulses are consistent with observed edge velocities near 10{sup 6} cm/sec. The level of ionization driven by the intense 125 femtosecond laser pulse has been coarsely estimated. Averaged estimates from spectral blue shifting of spectra transmitted through the plume are consistently lower than those obtained from evaluation of saturation intensity thresholds based on the sequential nonresonant optical field ionization (OFI) process.

Quarterly statistical report based on questionnaires submitted by persons visiting Texas.

Weekly newsletter discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Value Engineering (VE) is a problem solving methodology that has been used in manufacturing and construction industries for fifty years to improve products, systems and projects while reducing unnecessary cost. A Process Waste Assessment (PWA) is a newly developed methodology designed to characterize waste streams and identify opportunities to reduce or eliminate waste generation. The VE and PWA methodologies are compared to show their general similarities and specific differences, and to suggest how VE can be woven into the PWA methodology. Further, the roles of the VE and PWA team leaders and their training are compared; suggestions are made to help enable the PWA team leader to more effectively lead a group-centered creative process. Examples of how VE has been used in hazardous and radioactive waste minimization and pollution prevention projects are presented, also.

Value Engineering (VE) and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) can be used synergistically to reduce costs and improve facilities designs. The cost and schedule impacts of implementing alternative design ideas developed by VE teams can be greatly reduced when the drawings have been produced with interactive CAD systems. To better understand the interrelationship between VE and CAD, the fundamentals of the VE process are explained; and example of a VE proposal is described and the way CAD drawings facilitated its implementation is illustrated.

Since 1974 the neutrino processes mediated by neutral currents have been a part of supernova (SN) modeling calculations. In this report only present day SN calculations will be discussed. First I will give brief description of the SN computer model and an outline of the explosion process as depicted by that model. Then I will discuss the role weak neutral current (WNC) processes play in this explosion process. Finally, I will discus inelastic scattering of tau neutrinos by heavy elements in WNC or Earth as a mechanism for measuring the mass of tau neutrino.

We present results from experiments directed toward increasing the degree of transverse coherence in x-ray laser beams. We have concentrated on the neon-like yttrium (Z=39) collisionally-pumped x-ray laser as the test system for these studies because of its unique combination of brightness, monochromaticity, and high-reflectivity optics availability. Attempts at improving laser performance using proximate feedback optics failed. Modest success has been found to date in ``double foil`` experiments, involving two x-ray lasers spatially separated by 29 cm and shot sequentially in an ``oscillator-amplifier`` configuration.